Kateki
by Kishi
Summary: A continuation of Kyoudai. The North has been saved. Now the players move toward the next goal. Elle continues to serve the Fire Nation as seer. John wants to kill her. And Ryan? He's the poor fool caught in the middle.
1. Chapter 1

Kateki

Prologue

I keep stalling out,

I just can't keep up

There's alarming doubt

Am I good enough?

But you keep coming around

To convince me it's still far from over...

- Mute Math, _Stall Out_

-

Ryan knew as soon as he opened his eyes that he was in deep trouble.

He was surrounded by clouds. Clouds in a peach-colored sky. That meant dream sequence, in the language of the show, something that he was pleased had not changed thanks to his being here. And there was only reason for him, a non main character, what some might call an original character, to have a dream sequence.

Someone up here was angry.

The someone in particular was a red-robed man with a long white beard. He wore his hair in a top knot. His gaze was steady, but Ryan found that he could bear its weight.

"Avatar Roku," Ryan said. He bowed. He couldn't think of anything else to do.

"Ryan. Do you know why you are here?"

He had a feeling he did. But he didn't want to just come out and say so. This wasn't the time to risk being wrong.

"No, sir, I do not."

"You are here, Ryan, because of what has been happening in the Mortal World. The world that you have interfered with."

Ryan nodded. He hadn't had a clue that this was how it would happen. He'd really thought, when he'd started fiddling around with the television in his garage, that it would be some kind of random thing he did to make up for the fact that one of his friends had moved away.

Seriously, who knew?

"I didn't mean for it to happen," he said.

"Be that as it may, you are not exempted. Not only have you entered this world, but your brother. And your friend."

John and Elle. One practically a Marine, the other a brilliant scholar. Neither one of them being particularly inclined to see him at the moment.

"We've made a mess of things," Ryan said.

"That may be understating it."

Maybe it was. None of them had ended up together with each other. John had crashed down where the Avatar was. He had journeyed with them through all of their adventures, up to the North Pole.

Ryan had struck the deck of Zuko's ship. He'd demonstrated sufficient martial knowledge to warrant training as a bodyguard for the erstwhile prince.

And Elle? Elle was Azula's now. Completely and utterly. Somewhere along the line she'd been brainwashed and was using her knowledge of the modern world to turn the war in the Fire Nation's favor. That also included her knowledge of the show.

She had been a brilliant scholar.

"I'll admit. I haven't handled this well at all."

The memories flashed in his mind. He'd tried to tell John to keep out of business. He'd tried to do the same to Elle, only she couldn't stay out of the affairs of this world. Zuko had wanted to kill her, he thought with a shudder. He'd come up with the better idea of kidnapping her, which had led to her being tied up in the forest for hours on end. Hence the brainwashing.

Which led to Jeong Jeong's capture. The imprisonment of Prince Zuko, which he had only foiled with Elle's sympathies. And the invasion of the North, with a fleet four times the size of the original designs.

And then John had figured out it was Ryan's fault. Fantastic.

"Do you know what will happen?" Roku asked.

"I don't. I don't know what's going to happen now. I know I'm supposed to keep the world as it should be, but this is too big." And Ryan felt it – like a heavy fist wrapped around his heart. He felt something cold and dead in his mind. "I mean. I'm not an Avatar. I don't have power, I don't have royal backing, I don't have resources. I just. I don't think I."

"You are right," Roku said. "I have not called you here to condemn you. You were ignorant. You acted in ignorance. You did not mean for all of this to happen. And so I am going to help you."

Ryan held his breath. He didn't know what to say, and it sounded too good to be true. What was coming?

Avatar Roku breathed in – and blew fire at Ryan.

And for a split second, Ryan thought, this was it. He was going to die, lost in an alternate dimension, not on a battlefield or a chopping block but cremated by an angry ghost. Not exactly how he would have pictured going.

But as the flames wreathed him, something else happened. The cold, dead grip on his heart loosened. A light roared in his mind, and where there had been no hope there now danced figments of what might be ideas.

"This flame will burn within you," the Avatar said in a million voices. "It is determination. It will glow all the more brightly as the days grow darker, and you will not be overcome. _Now go!_"

-

Ryan woke up to the cold. This ship was always cold in the mornings. But instead of pulling the covers over his head, he got up and breathed in. He had work to do.

-

My fondest hope is that whomever should read this will _not_ go back and read the preceding story. Because honestly? It's not much good. I had a hard time finding direction with it. One minute it was a slapstick comedy kind of thing and the next it was all super dark and serious before going back to something wry and in-between.

I mean, if you want to, I can't stop you. I just think you'd be wasting your time. And I learned enough that I think this will be better. So.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is copyrighted to Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. I write this as a humble fan without any expectation of profit.


	2. Chapter 2

Kateki

Chapter 1

I'm in a nightmare

Start to shake,

As I plea, wish the sun would rescue me,

Want my mind to let me be

I'm in a nightmare!

-Crooked X, _Nightmare_

-

Aang stood up out of his hammock and walked out onto the deck. Katara got up to go after him. But John was already up from his place near the door. He looked over at Katara and shook his head. He grinned at her in the shadows and made a lay-down kind of motion with his hand. Katara stared at him for a moment, but she did lay back down again.

He got up and walked out. The ship's deck swayed in the sea. Still, perhaps it was something to do with the whole waterbending thing, but the shifting didn't bother him. He made it over to where Aang was standing, looking out.

"'sup?" John asked.

"Just a nightmare," Aang said.

"What about?"

"I was in the Avatar state, but I was outside my body watching myself. It was scary. _I_ was scary."

"Yeah," John said.

They stood and watched the waves a little while.

"So what have you decided?" Aang asked.

"What?"

"About your friend and your brother."

"Oh yeah." Yeah, of course. Leave it to that kid to remind him about how he wanted to kill Elle. And maybe Aang was probably right. Killing her was a bad thing. Being part of the cycle of suffering or whatever it was he'd said wasn't something that John wanted.

Shit. If this could have happened _after_ Boot, he wouldn't have any problem with this. But now it was all complicated.

"Well?"

John looked back at Aang and sighed.

"Well. I don't think I really want to. She wasn't no friend of mine, but she's a friend of Ryan's and that counts for something." Not much. But something. "But on the other hand, if she tries shit on me, well. I mean. I got to defend myself. Never know what could happen."

"That's better than what you started with," Aang said with a firm nod. John shrugged, but said nothing more.

-

Stay focused, Ryan. She's coming. That one. The villain. The villainiest villain in the series. _Azula_.

He was tempted to sit cross-legged with Zuko. He wanted to relax, and he felt that he kind of deserved it. Journeying down here from the north hadn't been easy. Even if Elle had managed to loan them a boat, Zuko had been a paranoid bundle of nerves the entire time. The ship obviously had a spy aboard who was to report on his every move.

Just getting the guy to sit down for a meal had been hard enough. To have the chance, now, to actually sit down and just rest in this place was more than he had hoped for. It was some kind of Fire Nation colony, only it had more in common with a resort town or a retreat. Their first night here, they'd gone to look at cherry blossoms, and Ryan could suddenly see why people made a habit of looking for these things back home.

But he couldn't focus on that right now. He had it all right in front of him. The set-up for what was going to be the beginning of Book II.

It was coming. But instead of a cold feeling, something in his chest danced and flickered at the thought.

Azula knew her own mind, and her actions. Ryan knew her mind, and her actions. But she did not know his mind or his actions. Which meant, really, that he had the advantage.

She could bring her game. She just wouldn't win.

-

Elle sighed. She knew Azula well enough to know that she didn't take to changes in her plans well at all. As was the case now with the captain getting chewed out over the tides. It was her strength, really. An unflinching will that brooked no obstacle and accepted no excuses.

And Elle wanted to help that. She really did. She didn't want to get in the way of Azula's plan, and it really was quite brilliant. Leading Zuko along on the promise of his father's love? It was a master stroke, a demonstration of her knowledge of the boy's character.

Also, it wouldn't work. And much as Azula would hate having her plans changed, she would hate the failure more.

"My Lady," Elle murmured, walking up behind the Princess.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I have had another vision."

"What do you see?"

"I see your brother. He is walking up a ramp, and onto this vessel. He is coming into your hands."

Azula smiled a thin-lipped smile. "Good. We'll have my failure brother contained in no time."

"But that is not all I see, my Lady," Elle said. "He is right on the verge of falling into your clutches when... there is a betrayal." Elle almost stopped. Azula's face had become like a statue's. There was no softness, only a dead cast of her eyes.

"Who?"

"The visions are unclear."

"Who is it?" and she sounded ready to spit nails.

"I cannot say," Elle said, looking away. No sense in looking like she was attempting to show authority over her Lady. "I believe, however, that he doesn't mean to. It is an accidental slip on his part, and it costs you everything."

"An accident, you say?" Azula put a hand to her chin in thought, and the humanity came back to her features. "I see. Well, there's no sense in a random execution. And there's no need to worry about it if we can act around it."

"I had hoped you would see it that way, my Lady."

"Well, since you seem to know how this goes, what do you have in mind?"

"I don't know your brother and Uncle, Azula. I can only tell you that as long as they are breathing, they will never give up," Elle said softly. Imprisoning them would be hard.

"You're right, my friend. You always are," Azula said, taking Elle's hand and squeezing it. "My father wants them alive, but that is a waste of my energy and his mercy. I shall bring their heads back with me, much more efficient and much more of a statement."

Elle hung her head. She would hate to see anything happen to the kind general and the prince, who was innocent of anything but failure. She had just damned them, something she wished she could undo. "But your father's orders..." she pleaded.

"My father wants them removed from his side, Elle. This will do it... permanently," Azula said with a smile. "Does the death of traitors upset you?"

Elle shook her head. "My only wish is your happiness, my lady," she lied, bowing her head.

"What is troubling you, Elle? Do you have feelings for my pathetic brother?" Azula asked.

Elle shook her head. The strange servant...who haunted her dreams...best be honest. "Of course not, my lady. It's..his servant. I feel I know him," she explained.

"So take him. He looks handsome enough, let him warm your bed as a reward for your fine idea. See, problem solved. I take good care of my friends," Azula said, squeezing Elle's hand.

"Yes, you do."

-

John had listened in.

They had journeyed from the Water Tribe vessel to the fort. The fort with General Fong. Fong's Fucking Fort, or the Fort of Fucking Fong. Hey, he could be a poet with lines like that. Suck on that, Ryan, he thought.

He'd just gone with the flow, which was his way. He'd listened and stayed quiet – not because it was what Ryan wanted or it was the right thing or whatever. No. He'd just not had anything to say. He'd just listened as General Fong outlined all the reasons that Aang needed to be a badass, to access the Avatar state and change the tide of the war immediately.

Everyone else disagreed. Aang had to decide his destiny his own way, learn all the elements in their own time. It was great, high-minded stuff, the sort of thing that the hero was supposed to say when the story was going the way it should.

Except that everything was fucked up. And now? Fong was right.

He hated the idea of Aang going berserk – he'd seen it, up north, and that was some serious shit – but he also hated the idea of the Fire Nation winning. If the game was going to be changed as much as he thought it was, it didn't make any sense to do them any favors by waiting for the plot to catch up.

He caught up with Aang in their quarters. Sokka and Katara were out, getting maps and supplies respectively. If there was going to be any talking, it would have to be here and now.

"'sup, Aang?" he asked.

Aang didn't answer for a while. John sat down next to him on the mat and leaned back against a wall. He'd play the waiting game if he had to, and sometimes it was one of those things you just had to do.

Finally, Aang said, "The elders used to tell me that all people suffered. If we didn't help to stop that suffering, then we were helping people to suffer."

"But they were real hardasses, weren't they?"

Aang shrugged.

"They didn't make things easy. But I believe that. If I'm doing nothing to stop these soldiers from getting hurt, then... it's as bad as if I hurt them myself."

John looked over at the boy, noticed the slump in his shoulders. This was one of those 'carry that weight' moments. And John suddenly knew what he needed to say. It was almost the same as that time, back home, when he and his family had been approached by the USMC recruiter.

"Look, Aang," John said. "I can't tell you what to do. Whatever decision it is you make, about the General and all that? It's your business. But what I can tell you is this: if you decide to go through with this, I'm going to do everything that's in my power to help you."

"What are you saying?" Aang asked.

"That if you decide to go down the General's road... you won't have to go alone."

-

Okay. So Azula hadn't shown up quite according to plan. That was fine. Probably a forgotten detail of the episode, right? Ryan could deal with that. Maybe she was supposed to come later.

But after a day out on the beaches collecting shells, she hadn't been there either. And now he was starting to get that feeling. That oh-shit-something-is-wrong-and-I-can't-put-my-finger-on-it feeling. She should have been here. She should have been here and Zuko should have been lured in with promises of his father's love and everything. Then the lovely mistake and the next few months of roughing it on the road to Ba Sing Se.

So where was she?

She wasn't here. Ryan had managed to not trip on the doorstep when she hadn't been there. He'd managed to maintain his calm. So the game had changed. Didn't mean he couldn't play yet. Ryan would just have to wait until the hand was shown-

And then ninjas.

Well, not ninjas. One minute he was sitting there, listening to the sounds of the night and suddenly the doors on both sides of their lodge opened. People were streaming in, people in armor, with strange masks unlike the skull pieces of the normal Fire Nation army.

Ryan didn't think. There wasn't time. The only thing he could think to do was to launch himself up off the floor, a strangled cry of "Zuko, _run!_" before smashing into the bodies of the soldiers. He heard a grunt and several shouts, banging, commotion before being crushed down to the floor. His arms were wrenched behind his back. There were pinpoints of pain in his shoulder, and he grunted, but it didn't seem unbearable.

The soldiers pulled him up. Ryan tried to look around. He could see Iroh, being borne low on his knees.

He couldn't see Zuko anywhere.

-

Night time in the Fort of Fong, the Fucker.

No, John decided, that wasn't quite the ring he was looking for either. It was plenty foul, it did that part just fine, but something about the... the whatever, the beginning sound. It didn't seem right. Maybe it was too many syllables. Maybe Fong's Fucking Fort was just right after all.

There. That settled it.

The tests today had been a riot. These people were doing all of this stuff – hitting Aang with mud, giving him coffee, all of it – without any irony, completely straight-faced. John had allowed himself to smirk throughout the day, because if he'd tried to hold it back he would've had a full on belly laugh to contend with. And Aang had borne it all with unflagging good cheer, an air of _I must succeed!_ It was great!

Seriously. Why couldn't all the crazy adventures be like this?

He wasn't ready to turn in for the night quite yet so he was out on the ramparts of the fort. Out here, even with the torchlight, it was still possible to see so many more stars than he could back home. So. At least there was one good thing.

He heard footsteps, and looked along the walk to see Katara. She wasn't looking at him, really, she had a thousand yard stare through him, but her eyes refocused and she saw him looking. She smiled, a little. But, to John, it didn't seem to be very happy.

"Hey John."

"'sup?"

Katara shook her head and leaned on the rampart. "I can't wait to get out of this fort."

"Don't blame you. Nothing to do out here."

"No, it's not that," she said. "It's... I'm worried about Aang."

"Mm? What's up?"

"The General's putting him through all this stuff, trying to bring out the Avatar State."

"He just wants to win, Katara."

"That's just it. He wants to win, no matter what the cost. Even if it's the wrong way to win."

Oh come _on_. Why was it that this girl had to be the principled one? Never mind that she'd drop those principles when the story called for it. Right now the story they were a part of wouldn't let that happen, so she had to keep them. Even if she was wrong.

"If you say so."

"What? You don't see a problem with this?"

"Well," John said after a deep sigh, the why-do-I-have-to-have-this-talk sigh, "I mean, the whole thing is kind of fucked up, you know? Aang should be doing it the right way, but the right way takes a lot more time than we've got."

She frowned a little – go on, call me on my fucking profanity, John thought – but then she said, "So doing this the General's way is better? Even if it turns Aang into a monster?"

"Try to think of it this way," John said. "We've got to win. It's best if we win. We have to do whatever it takes to get there. Hate it all you want. I'd rather be able to look back and say I did wrong. Better than not being able to look back at all."

He locked his gaze with Katara's for a moment before he shook his head and looked away. Seriously. This wasn't worth fighting over.

"It's still not right," Katara said.

"I never said it was," John said.

-

Ryan was used to living in a cell. So being stuck behind the bars again didn't really bug him so much. The whole being chained thing was a bit inconvenient, but given his luck he'd work through it sooner or later. Sooner rather than later, he hoped.

There was a wall between he and Iroh. He'd been too tired to talk when the guards had thrown him in, and he wasn't really looking to start anything now. His mind was still racing.

How could the game change this way? Sure, Elle was basically playing Eye in the Sky for the Fire Nation. Sure she'd known about all of this. And yet, he couldn't help his disbelief. How could she change everything so completely? Now all the bets were off and the board was completely different. The crucial mistake wouldn't happen. Zuko was God-knew-where. And the timing of the incarceration absolutely could not be worse.

There was a clanging sound. Ryan listened, and heard steps on the metal of the corridor. He did his best not to move, but he shifted his glance outward to see who it was. And he blinked at the sight of her.

It was Elle. She had servants with her. They had food. He pretty much stopped caring after that. She gestured, said something to the servants that he didn't hear, because food, hello. They opened up the door to his cell. She entered, and the servants sat the food between them as she sat down.

She looked at him sadly. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "Don't worry, the food is safe."

Ryan nodded, knowing somehow that she wouldn't poison him. Elle was given to grand gestures like swearing in Yiddish and throwing books at people. Poisoning would be against her sense of justice. Too subtle. "Thanks, m'lady."

"You know what will happen to your masters?" Elle asked, taking some food herself. "My mistress will have them executed. I...do not wish for you to share their fate."

"And why would this humble one arouse my lady's mercy?" Ryan asked, grateful that whatever had been done to Elle, it hadn't altered her personality too much. She was still the girl who had fainted during biology when dissecting frogs and cried when a bird suffered. And now she was the girl who made war ships.

"That is for me to know," Elle said softly. "I have my reasons for wanting you kept safe."

"They are gratefully accepted, but surely I can ask why?" Ryan asked. "It's not like I'm worth anything to you."

Elle bit her lip and played with a lock of her hair. "Just eat and be grateful," she said softly. "You can sleep in the servants' quarters as soon as the prince and the general are dead. You'll be comfortable."

Ryan hated to do this, but he needed to be a little more direct. "May I ask about your health?" he asked. "Have your headaches gotten any better?"

Elle's eyes widened. "How would you...know that?" she asked. "Even my mistress doesn't know."

"I know a lot about you. You have a scar on your left wrist when you burned yourself cooking and one on your hip from a pin in a dress you wore to your cousin's wedding," Ryan said. "And the second one would be covered up by clothing." Happily, it was not covered up by bathing suits or he'd never know that one.

"I see. I ask because... I don't know who I am," Elle whispered, leaning close. "My whole life is a blank. I don't remember anything from before a few months ago. I don't have parents or siblings, or home. And if I dare ask, I wake up and...forget even more. Sometimes I think I'm going mad!" Her gaze was fully on him now. "But...I always know that I know you. Do... do you know me?" 

And now the fortunes were shifting again. Ryan stared at her over the rice and the fish – done military style, so it was overcooked, but whatever – and considered. She was looking at him, earnest, open. She was lost as lost could be. He, in truth, was fighting the urge to exult. Whatever it was that they'd done to her, they hadn't gotten to her deepest part. She was still herself enough to know that this wasn't right.

Ryan opened his mouth and noticed the guards shaking their heads ominously. Elle was so…small compared to them. She had always been short, but now she looked even more helpless. She didn't even know who she was, and didn't know how much danger she was in.

"My lady, perhaps you should leave," one guard said. It sounded a lot like an order and not a suggestion. "He is unworthy."

"Please, the princess gave me permission to turn this one to our side," Elle said, trying to sound confident. "A few more minutes."

He took a bite while she continued to watch and made his decision. The question was no longer whether or not he could tell her anything, but rather what to tell her. Depending on how deep she was buried under all this programming, the truth would either strike a chord in her or bounce off like a joke.

"Yes. I know you." He watched Elle smile wide, and some of the tension seemed to leave her shoulders.

"I knew it! I knew I knew you! It was the only way any of this made sense." Ryan nodded and ate. The next question was coming, and Elle asked it: "But where do I know you from?"

"From... before." The guards were glaring at him and he had a bad feeling that he was going to pay for this.

"Before? You mean from the Fire Nation?" Elle gasped.

Shit. Ryan had hoped it wouldn't be like that. But all the same, what else could he do? This needed a gentle kind of push. Much as he wanted to just come out and say that she was from another world, same as he, it just wouldn't do. She was too close to Azula, and if she wasn't then the servants would be. They would drag her out of the cell. They were already stepping closer to her. That would make everything so damned complicated.

But even then, something lit up in his mind. "Yeah. From back there." The goons were relaxing now.

"Well, where are we from?" Elle pressed, taking his hands. She looked so happy now, even as he lied to her. Well, it was better than tying her up in a forest.

"The... uh, the capitol. Our fathers took foreign wives – that's why we don't look so much like the others," Ryan said, getting nods of approval from the guards. Maybe they wouldn't kill him in his sleep.

"Do you know my parents?" Elle gushed. Ryan looked up at her. Her gaze was on him, and she was so still, and even if she was become destroyer of worlds or whatever he saw how small she was.

"I do, but it's been a long time since I've seen them." Please, Ryan thought. Please be so excited about the little things I'm giving you that you don't ask me your parent's names. That will just make everything complicated as hell.

"Do they... do they miss me?" Elle asked, her eyes bright. "I miss them…even if I can't remember them…"

"Did…my lady. You remember your parents died when you were young, right?" one guard said softly. "You should rest. You are still weak from illness. We should take you back to your room."

Elle's eyes filled with tears. "Oh…yeah," she whispered, looking away. "They were killed by the Earth Nation and the palace took me in. I'm an orphan."

Ryan had a sudden urge to either wipe her tears away or kill a guard. "My lady, I'm sorry. I didn't know…I am sorry," he said. He went back to eating. It was awkward, but it was the only way to turn off the conversation and get some breathing room so he could figure the next move.

Then Iroh came to the rescue.

"Please don't mind this old man. He isn't hungry for even the tiniest morsel of food. Even a grain of rice would be too much for him!"

Elle lowered her eyes. "My mistress forbids it," she said softly. "I can only save you." 

"You're saying that kind old man doesn't deserve a little comfort in his final hours?" Score. Elle winced, then sighed, then gestured. Two servants came in and picked up some of the dishes, taking them over to the other cell. "Thank you."

"I wish I could do more for you," Elle whispered. "Please, come with me. Let me save you." 

Ryan looked at her and shook his head. He wanted to say the same thing to her. Because this wasn't a destroyer of worlds, this was a friend who was being lied to, was being kept in the dark. "I will be fine. I'm not afraid." And then it went badly. "Though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death…" he began. 

"I will fear no evil…" Elle whispered. For a moment, there was a look in her eyes. "Ryan…for thou art with me. The twenty third Psalm. Yes, I know this….when I was in the hospital, you brought me flowers with this on the card…my appendix…" she babbled. Ladies and gentlemen, Elle was in the building.

Before she could say anymore, the guards stepped in. "He has a knife!" one shouted, pulling Elle away bodily. Elle hissed in pain as she was bodily picked up, without dignity. "My lady, he tried to kill you!" 

"Get your hands off me, he didn't even move!" Elle shouted, but she was already being carried out like a child. "Let go of me!" 

Ryan was in no better condition, slammed against a wall. "You can't keep her in the dark forever. She's remembering," Ryan snapped. "And I know who she really is." 

"Tomorrow, you're going to be dead," the guard retorted quietly. "And we have ways of making sure she doesn't remember. Even if it hurts, it's for the greater good." 

-

Elle was locked helplessly in her room when her mistress returned. "So, talking to the prisoners?" she asked, sitting down next to her. "You're in a bit of a bind."

Elle hung her head. "I don't belong here. Please, let us go, I have a family who needs me. My friend and I, we're not from your world. We're no use to you."

Azula patted Elle's shoulder. "I see your own illness has taken over you again. I'll see to your care. As for the prisoner, he is a liar and for your own good, I am going to end him," she said.

Elle fell to her knees. "He's innocent. Why are you doing this?" she demanded, before noticing someone else enter the room. "What is happening?" she hissed as arms dragged her to her bed, pinning her helplessly. "Let go of me!"

"Friends don't let friends have dumb ideas that would get them executed. Relax, my dear friend. When you wake up, he'll never bother you again," Azula said with a smile.

-

John had made his decision.

Aang was going to have to be a tougher kid. A better kid, more able to bear the stress that was coming his way. Because Elle was just fucking up every single damn thing. If Aang stayed the way he was, there was no way he'd be able to deal with the hurdles that were coming. It just wasn't going to happen. The kid would crack, or worse.

The way he was now wasn't strong enough to deal with what was coming. He had to learn some lessons. Hard lessons. And he knew exactly where it had to start, as if he could see where the river of cause started and how to divert its course.

And that was why he had waited in the shadows of the fortress. He couldn't go out and help Aang with his problems. If he was really going to help – get this to work in the long run – then he couldn't afford to get wrapped up in the petty things like getting stabbed by a soldier or crushed by a stone disk. He had to wait. And besides, he knew how this would play out. They didn't need him to win this fight.

Though when the disks were set up, and Katara was making the run for it, and then the whole sinking-her-in-to-the-ground-thing. He didn't like that. He didn't like that at all. But again, he had to hold back. He knew how this would work out.

The ground began to rumble around him. The wind picked up into a howl. Aang – no, the Avatar – exploded into his power. And really, the fort kind of exploded with him. John collapsed against the wall of the fortress as the ground all around rippled like a lake. The air sounded like thunder. There was a ripping sound, almost like paper, as cracks appeared in the walls around him.

And then stillness.

John peeked out. Aang was sitting back up, dazed and confused. Kid did not look good. And there was the damned general, standing over him like it wasn't a big thing. John flicked the cap off of his water skin, and dashed out. The distance wasn't _that_ great, not really. It was enough. He gestured, and the water flowed at his movement. He shot his arm out and crooked his wrist.

The water flowed into a globe. Right around the General's head.

Nobody did anything at first. Getting the Bent equivalent of a rear naked air-choke combination was probably not something that they saw very often in this world. They probably wouldn't, either. Not until the Fire Nation, whenever that was. God, that would be a ways off, wouldn't it? But don't focus on that, John, focus on the fact that Fucking Fong wants to try and dodge his way out of it.

It occurred to him that if Fong was an Earthbender, the odds were really good that he would want to try something dirty. But he was also banking on the fact that drowning really, _really_ sucks, and that he was a man like any other. People panicked without air. It worked that way when you air-choked someone, and surely it would work that way here.

Fong did drop. John sank his stance and the globe of water sunk with him. Fong scrabbled, clawed at the globe, but his hands just passed through it. That was right. He couldn't breathe to concentrate and lift the earth, and even if he could get enough mud up into the globe to absorb the water, he'd be putting it down his own throat to get it.

That's right, you motherfucker, John thought. You don't have a way out of this. I own you.

"John!" Katara shrieked. "John, let him go!"

"No, Katara. I won't."

"Let him go!"

"Not everyone is worth saving," he said. I will use the fucking command voice on you, girl. Don't you get in my way about this. And then his arms went light as the water was yanked from him. The globe flowed off of the General, who collapsed to the ground, panting and coughing.

John glared at Katara, but she glared back, eyes narrow and hard. He looked over at the others, Sokka's face quiet, Aang's eyes wide.

Idiots. He'd show them. He'd show them all.

-

Ryan had tried to sleep. He'd really tried. But there was no way for it to come. Every time he would close his eyes he saw her face. The moment they'd shared here, together, playing in his mind over and over again. For one minute, the light had shone through and she'd been herself again. For that one moment, the goal was met, and the chance had been there to repair this world and leave it the way it should have been. And it was all lost, now.

Compounding that was the whole dying at dawn thing. He was really confident of where he'd be going, but that didn't stop him from wanting to live. Wherever he was going to be, it wouldn't be here. How could he go before God and explain leaving behind such a mess? That would really suck.

Even now, with the darkness closing around him, he didn't feel anything like despair. If anything, he felt a heat tingling in his limbs. As if he was so much kindling for a fire he couldn't see. He wanted to rage, to hit something while roaring the lyrics to Dragonforce's _Through the Fire and Flames_. Or maybe Muse. _Knights Of Cydonia_ would be a pretty kick ass song too.

He heard footsteps. He looked over from where he was sitting on the bed. It must have been the executioners, come for him at last. He looked at the cell door, trying to figure if he could just power out of it as soon as it opened. It would depend, really, on how many people were there. That question soon flew out the window. It was just one. Ryan looked, but he couldn't see anything like a sheath, and the man wasn't carrying any weapons. A Bender. It would be tricky, but if he could just overwhelm him, then -

"Ryan. Relax. It's me."

What? That was Zuko's voice.

Ryan watched as he unlocked first his uncle's door, and then Ryan's own. "My prince," he hissed, "what are you doing here?"

"I'm getting you out. Don't talk. Follow me."

They were good orders. He did exactly that. Zuko led them out through the main hatch. The hallways were nothing to really think about. Once you've seen a million miles of corridor on a Fire Nation ship, they all look the same. Ryan could only care so much about hard metal floors and miles of steam pipes.

But what he did care about was the fact that there wasn't anybody around here. Ryan had been stuck serving on a ship for a few months before the Siege of the North. If it had taught him anything, it was that ships never had this much empty space. Fire Nation ships were floating tin cans, and the show did nothing to really capture the reality of the situation. At the very least there should have been someone on patrol for them to sneak around, but. Nothing.

What did it mean? Ryan felt it in his chest, like the coiling of a spring. The situation was about to go all to hell.

They climbed one more staircase. Zuko opened the door and said a word that they'd definitely never heard on the show. He stepped forward. Iroh followed, and Ryan was last. He saw the reason.

He was sure that the entire crew of Azula's ship was up there on that deck. The sun shone down. The red of their uniforms reminded him of blood. Their swords didn't remind him of anything; they just made his hands sting with adrenaline. Azula was standing at the head, her lips quirked. But Ryan's gaze wasn't on anything but Elle. She was staring at him, a blank expression on her face.

"Well done, Brother," Azula said. "You played your part perfectly. Now we can execute all three of you without having to chase you down."

Dear Jesus, Ryan thought. We can't waste time here. Azula's not going to spare us. It's not beneficial to her in any way at this point, and on top of that we need Zuko to develop in just such a way. But what do we do?

Zuko didn't actually say anything. His fist clenched and he threw fire.

Well, Ryan thought. There's a solution.

There wasn't anyway to have this fight and win it. Ryan had once heard that a master strategist thinks in terms of numbers. His thoughts were racing too quickly for him to track, and he didn't have the presence of mind to count how many they were dealing with. But this wasn't something that needed a count. Lots of bodies over there versus three. And this wasn't _Bandits of the Water Margin_ or some kung fu fantasy. This was the real.

Zuko seemed to have the same thought. After he threw the flame, he turned and made a dash for the gangplank. Iroh was after him, and Ryan brought up the rear. His gaze was on the other soldiers. He almost didn't look to see Elle, but when he caught her gaze he couldn't help it.

In that instant, it was almost empty. She was looking at him, and she knew him, but not in the way that she had before. No, this was different. Elle – the one he'd known – was buried again. And as he watched, she held up her hands and began to twist her fingers.

Time slowed to a crawl. He'd been running, but something changed. A numbness crept up his legs. It was quick, and his knees began to buckle. It was like being plunged into cold peanut butter at the worst possible instant. Ryan tried to move his legs, but it only happened with difficulty.

And then the memories. Memories of his brother, deciding he wanted to kill Elle. The Fire Nation fleet in the north, so vast, a black and angry armada. Tying Elle up in a forest to try and save her. Each moment a failure, _his_ failure, and his alone. None of this was Elle's fault, or John's. Or, if they were, they were because of his fault. He was the center on which this was holding.

Now he didn't want to move anymore. He didn't want to go on. His actions had brought nothing but suffering no matter what. The only way this all stopped was if he stopped as well.

And then, there was nothing but flames.

-

Elle had found his chakras ready to use. Ryan practically wore his heart on his sleeve. It was just that easy. Reach into the Fire chakra, like she was snuffing out a candle-

No. What was this? Her hands began to burn. It felt like she was trying to wrestle with a handful of coal. She blinked, and for just a moment, she saw Ryan as if he was wreathed in flames. She dropped her hands, and both vision and heat dissipated into nothing.

She stared at her hands, Azula's presence isolating her from the rest of the commotion about her. They were perfectly fine, smooth. No pain. So what had happened that made him resist?

"Elle? How did that one escape your grasp?"

"I do not know," she said. "My lady, I... I do not know."

-

They ran and ran. Away from the town, out along the river. They came to a stand of trees, and all three of them stopped. Ryan didn't think they'd been followed.

"Ryan," Zuko said. "I'm sorry. Your friend is not herself."

"No fooling," Ryan said. "I was _so close_. How did all my work get undone like that?"

Zuko turned his face. "You don't want to know what happened to her," he said. "My sister doesn't like being undermined." 

Ryan winced. "I can take it. What did she do to her?" he asked. 

"It's hard to do on most people, because it can drive them mad, but you can take away people's memories by closing their chakras. It isn't done because it has to be repeated often and it's so painful. Each time, it gets much worse and it usually kills people, but…" Zuko trailed off. 

Ryan ripped a leaf and tried to focus on anything but killing people. "What happened?" he whispered. 

"When I got on the ship, they were carrying her out of the dungeons. She was babbling in some weird spirit language. They tied her down and got the sage to close her chakras again. They had to gag her. She would have screamed loud enough for the whole ship to hear. She stopped struggling after a few minutes. I think she passed out," Zuko explained. "She survived."

Ryan turned to Iroh. "You know, I doubted her. I really thought she had gone evil. But she was being tortured. She needed me and I failed her…again." He heaved a deep sigh. "Man, I suck at this whole hero thing." 

Iroh patted his back. "But she was innocent. And now, because of you, she has hope. Someone knows what is happening to her. Now, it's only a matter of rescuing her properly," he said. "You already have her heart. Now you just have to get the rest of her." 

Ryan ignored the final comment.

-

To Be Continued...

So, a little explanation is in order. I've noticed in the reviews some speculation about what it was that Ryan was gifted with when he went to Roku. I don't know if I gave an adequate demonstration, here, because it's not exactly an immunity to Elle's abilities. Rather, Ryan has been given an indomitable will, an unceasing desire to win.

My reasoning was that the two other players in our drama have some pretty stacked decks. John's got natural talent and the Avatar – raw power of a kind. Elle, on the other hand, has the backing of the Fire Nation, and the ability to fool around with people's chakras – raw power of another kind.

On the other hand, I didn't want to just play deus ex machina and cheaply give Ryan a power. Because that's just not as interesting a story. But I wanted to give him something. So what he has now is the power of the will, wherein he has the power to fight through despair to reach whatever end awaits him.

Some of you may have wanted this to be Ryan's spirit bomb. I am sorry to disappoint.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is copyrighted to Byran Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. I profit in no way save the experience.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: Beg y'all's pardon. The original draft was cut up into sections before , but the editor bot here doesn't seem to like that. I'm sorry!

Kateki

Chapter 2

Secret Tunnel!

Secret Tunnel!

Through the mountain!

Secret, secret, secret, secret tunnel! Yeah!

- Chong

The regression exercise works as follows. It begins with three sets of ten: ten jumping jacks, ten push-ups, ten sit-ups. Then three sets of nine, then of eight, all the way down to one. It is sometimes customary to follow these regressions with a progression – sets of one, all the way back up to ten.

"John, this is crazy!" Aang said. His arms were shaking from the push-up position. But John was pleased to see, as near as he could tell, that the boy's posture was proper.

"What're you talking about?"

"We've been through this, like, five times today!"

"You've got the energy to count?" John asked. "Because if you do that means you have the energy to _give me more push-ups!_"

Aang grunted and groaned as they went down and up again.

"I mean, look at Sokka! You hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Exactly! That's the sound of Sokka not complaining! He has hardened the fuck up, and you're going to do the same, now _down! Up!_"

They were on a progression part of the circuit, which was harder. John would admit that. But this was the part where you couldn't give in. Life wasn't about things getting easy all of a sudden. It was about things shifting from one to the other without any warning. And you had to be able to meet the hard things just like the easy things, or else you'd be overwhelmed.

You'd be a normal person. You'd be like Ryan.

But fuck him anyway.

Sokka had been a curious addition to the workouts. It wasn't that John couldn't imagine the guy getting involved in something like this. But he'd never really seen Sokka training in the show except for that sword episode. Somehow the connection between prowess and training had never really been made clear, not for Sokka anyway. But they'd been at it for a couple days now, and after the first few sessions, Sokka had just joined in.

"Ahem," he heard. John looked over to see Katara. Her face wasn't showing him anything he could read. That wasn't a face she made when she was in a happy place. "John, Aang needs to practice his Waterbending. Do you think you could spare him?"

John thought about telling her to wait – Aang had made it to the sixes on the progression, and it wouldn't do to have him not finish – but decided against it. He was already on thin ice with her. Even if he had tried to save her life, that didn't change the fact that, far as she was concerned, he wasn't any better than Fong.

Fighting her about this just wasn't worth it.

"Take-" John said, but before he could finish his thought, Aang was already off the ground, flying into the water. John quirked his lips and shook his head, before he caught Sokka looking at the water.

"Oh, no. No, you finish what you started."

They were just wrapping up the last sit-up when John heard the off-key guitar music. And that was when he felt the pit in his stomach open up.

_Hippies_, he thought. _Dirty, fucking hippies._

Ryan sneezed. Zuko looked askance, but Ryan shrugged. He supposed someone was talking about him.

Ryan had chosen to join Zuko on the fishing trip. Somehow he didn't want to be around if Iroh was going to be doing anything that involved getting poisoned. Even if it was going to be nonfatal and played for laughs.

But there was something about fishing. It was familiar. It was like home.

"Ugh! This is ridiculous! If I could just Firebend them-"

"No, milord, it doesn't work that way."

Zuko's first reflex had been to try something like spear-fishing. He'd grabbed a stick, whittled a sharp point on to it and had spent the next hour trying to harpoon a fish. Ryan hadn't been sure what to make of it – he was working on figuring out how to get a line onto one of these things – when it had worked. Zuko had held up his spear with a silvery, struggling thing on the end of it.

Well, damn, if the prince could do it, Ryan could as well. And he had Gary Paulsen's _Hatchet_ on his side. All he had to do was use the light refraction trick from that book and one, two, three fish later he was doing all right for himself.

Zuko was not doing so well.

"Perhaps if my lord desired to have his fish cooked before we returned to his uncle?"

"That's enough," Zuko snapped. Ryan grinned, but held his peace.

"How is it that you're better at this?" Zuko asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you have more fish than I, and I want to know why."

"Oh. My dad used to take me fishing."

"Really? This is how you fish on your world?"

Ryan suddenly had a vision of back home. Back on the lake behind the dam. His father had just gotten the fishing boat, and they drifted from one end to the other. Their lines followed after them, slack but for the pull of the water. They would watch and wait for that tell-tale twitch when the fish would bite.

He bit back a sigh and shook his head. "No, my lord."

"I tell you, Elle, if it's not one thing, it's always another with these people!"

"Ah, yes my lady," Elle said. She was having one of her headaches again. But she wasn't sure what it was about this time. She'd had them as long as she could remember, but there were some times when they just spiked on her. Times when she would just think of something and the spike of pain would split her skull in two.

They'd been happening more in the past week, since Prince Zuko and his traitor uncle had escaped. The plan had been so perfect. They'd been in the cell blocks, awaiting execution. She remembered regretting it for Iroh, who had been a perfect gentleman. But there was something about the bodyguard, Ryan, that she just didn't want to see die. If only she could-

Ow. There was the spike again.

"Still, that's the price of power," Azula was saying. "Having people under you means that you have to resolve their problems from time to time."

"I hadn't thought of this place as particularly disrupted, my lady."

"It isn't, not really. Which makes this case all the more imperative. If people think that they can simply do what they want, our power here will mean very little indeed. This has to be stamped out."

These headaches were becoming a thorn in her side if she couldn't even focus enough to remember what Azula had been saying. After all, she was a trusted Seer of the Fire Nation. Her lady's most trusted counsel. It would not do for her to pay no attention.

But it seemed that luck was with her.

"It is clear that my idiot brother could not have escaped without some help. Somehow he knew where to go, how to get past the guards, all of it. We clearly have a traitor in our midst."

"A traitor?" Elle fought the urge to rub her head. She bit her tongue as well. Saying that perhaps her lady was going too far afield with her accusations would not help the situation.

"How else do you explain it?" Azula demanded. "He clearly had foreknowledge of what we were planning. Someone in the town decided to help him. Perhaps it was out of a misguided sense of loyalty. Or perhaps it was a deliberate sleight against us. In either case, we must be harsh and swift in our justice. The people cannot be allowed to see us falter in this moment."

"My lady will be just in her judgment," Elle murmured.

"Well, of course I will. The traitor will not remain hidden from me." Azula stared out at the deck of the ship through narrow eyes. "Unfortunately, this is not something for which I can spare the proper amount of time. I have the needs of the men under my command. I can't look to both the townspeople _and_ my crew."

The thought of her noble lady suffering so to be fair and to be righteous to both sides pressed on Elle's heart. The words were out of her mouth before she could take them back.

"My lady, if it suits you, I could look after this for you."

The words hung out there, despite her headache and the fact that she didn't really feel like there was anything more she could do. She had visions to write down before she forgot. But there it was, her offer.

"Could you really?" Azula asked. And Elle wanted to say no, but she knew there was no way she'd get away with that. Azula would see a sleight in there, which would lead to even more difficulty. Why couldn't she just keep her mouth shut?

"Of course I could! I would do anything to help you," Elle said. And she meant it, really. Anything if it would let her get to the dark of her rooms for just a little while to let her head clear.

"That's good of you," Azula said. "Yes. Yes, this will do. Very well. Elle, I leave it in your hands."

"Yes, my lady."

It turned out that the hippies were clean, but a hippie is a hippie no matter what. There was nothing good about them.

John had hoped, when he'd gone off to get cleaned up, that they'd be gone. But no such luck. They were making themselves at home with the group, where they would dispense the episode's lesson. It would be fantastic. Fan-fucking-tastic.

But okay, fine. They could do what they want. As long as they weren't incredibly stupid or something, he could deal with whatever they were going to throw out there. Blah, blah, believe in yourself, friendship, bullshit like that.

Then again, if these were hippies, maybe they bought into free love. Which would mean that the woman, Lily, she might be available for something.

_Ah, fuck that shit_, John thought. Free love probably meant free herpies, and there was something he wasn't interested in, even a little bit.

John did not clap when Chong finished his song. At least he and Sokka had that much in common. He couldn't help the satisfied nod when everyone climbed into the saddle and they took off. He settled down and lay back. Surely, everything would turn out to be just fine, right?

At least, until the Fire Nation. Then it was nothing but boom time. John really couldn't have told how long it went on. The first explosion was too much, and the second and the third were nothing more than icing on a shit-ridden cake.

They ended up back on the ground. Among the hippies. And their dirty, dirty ways.

"John," Katara said. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"I've been watching you train Aang."

"So?"

"So, I think you're being too hard on him. He needs time to rest from the training."

"No, I don't think so."

"John," Katara said, folding her arms across her chest like girls did when they were about to start something, "this can't go on. You're starting to sound like General Fong."

_Aw, bullshit_. "No way. I'm not going to try to kill Aang. I'm not interested in him finding his way to the Avatar state or whatever. I've got something different for him."

"What do you mean by different?"

"Look. Things are going to go... wrong." That was the cleanest way to explain it. "Maybe your way would've been good once, but not now. Now he's got to dig deeper. And that's what I'm going to do."

"Dig deeper? John, you've dug as deep as you can. He can barely keep his arms up in my lessons."

"Not my fault he's weak. That's what I'm trying to get around."

It wasn't over by a long shot. She had more to say, John knew it. That was how girls were. But they were right in front of the cave now. It was such a sight that he had to pause. He hoped that she would do the same.

She did.

Song. Was. Pretty.

Maybe it had something to do with how she wasn't trying to kill them. Or maybe it was the way she smiled. Nice, open. Not that desperate, look in your eyes and bear your teeth thing. She took one look at Iroh and had them all inside in what was practically a jiffy.

Zuko was still too tense; leaning against the wall, but with his shoulders all bunched up like he was carrying a pack. Ryan was leaned against another wall. He hoped he didn't look tense. He certainly didn't _feel_ tense, but that hadn't stopped people from trying to shake his shoulders loose every now and again.

"I'm Lee... and that's Mushi." Ugh. Seriously, Zuko was bad at this. Or at least he'd been written to be bad at this kind of thing. Either way, he still had to grit his teeth and bear the groan. Though Iroh carried it with aplomb. Calling Zuko 'Junior'... it was priceless. It was a great move on the guy's part.

"And what about you?" Song asked. Ryan started when he realized she was talking to him.

"I'm Yan," he said. "No relation." No sense in keeping his name for now. If word got out that Ryan the Bodyguard was on the lam with the prince of the Fire Nation, the game would get a little dicey. But Yan? Yan was a normal, Chinese kind of name without all those weird conventions that the Fire Nation kept with its names.

"Yan, Mushi, and Junior," Song said, and Ryan couldn't help staring at how the light of the day twinkled in her eyes. "I think you three could use something to eat. Why don't you stay for dinner?"

"Can't," Zuko said. "We've got further to go."

"That's too bad. My mother always fixes too much roast duck."

Ryan's stomach grumbled loudly. The conversation froze on him. He gave a nervous chuckle. "Maybe not."

"All right, then, for the last time," Elle said. "From the beginning. Explain it to me. Where were you on the night before the Prince and his guard escaped?"

"I was on the docks," the defendant said. His name was Kon. He was a broad-chested man, and she could see scars on his hands even from where she sat. He was a fisherman, one of the laborers that made the resort possible. It was a curious sensation, this, sitting in front of this man and questioning him. It felt... well, right. Truly right, not just in the sense of events coming together as they should. This felt like she belonged.

Very strange.

"What were you doing on the docks?"

"I was mending the nets."

"Continue."

"I was mending the nets and uh. This guy came up to me. He wanted to see about using one of the boats."

"You didn't think to question him?"

"It's not unusual, milady," the man said. He didn't move to wipe the bead of sweat from his brow. "The sight of the moon over the waves is incredible this time of year. Men sometimes come around to take a boat-"

"Is this allowed?"

"At first it wasn't-"

"Has that changed?"

"Well... no... but it's never been a problem before."

"I see. Continue."

The man swallowed before he continued. "He... he paid me in coin, and I let him take the boat. He took it out toward the harbor, where the other ships were, and-"

"And you never saw his face?" Elle asked.

"I never thought to look. He was wearing a coolie's hat. I thought he was one of us."

"So let me get this straight," Elle said. "You gave out a boat – almost government property – to a strange man you didn't even know-"

"I thought he was one of-" he tried to say, but Elle wasn't going to take that.

"-for money. You sir, are the weak link here. You let a complete and utter stranger have the means to execute a break-in. A stranger who, for all we know, is a vile traitor, plotting treason. His breaking in, and his escape, can all be traced back to having attained that boat. And you, sir, are the means by which this happened."

"It's not my fault-"

"Oh, isn't it?" Elle asked. Something about flustering this guy and pushing him into a corner definitely felt familiar. "Because, as it looks now, it is most definitely your fault. What you need to give me is a good reason to not turn you over to Azula and her guards."

"I... I..." the man had a look on his face, like a wild animal caught in the pounce.

"Of course, I could be merciful," she said. "It would be a shame for you to lose the use of your hands. I imagine you could put them to better use elsewhere, say, at the Burning Rock."

Most would say that being sent to the worst prison in the Fire Nation was not a merciful option at all. But even the worst of the prison would be better than what the Princess would unleash on this man. But he didn't get that. He just sat there, staring at her. She could see it in his chakras. She hadn't even had to touch him. The Guilt had gotten to him. He was overwhelmed now, she was sure, with visions of what he could have done, should have done.

But this was his fate. He'd built himself up to this point. His own slackness, his lack of discipline, his own easygoing nature had cost him everything today.

And if she wasn't careful, it'd be her on the block someday.

_Wolf bats! Wolves with wings and fangs and oh my fucking God why is this happening to me!_

John was going to kill something.

Ryan had been too busy shoveling duck down his throat to really be into any conversation. They, for the most part, had been interested only in Iroh and Zuko, and as it was he was willing to let the conversation play like it should. He was curious to note that, despite the changes undergone in the 'story' that the conversation was basically playing out like he remembered it. Zuko was learning to hide his nature. This was a good thing.

There was, however, a peculiarity. He was sure he'd been imagining it at first, but he'd caught Song looking his way enough times to get a feeling. It felt like something was up. But damned if he could figure it out. Because there was no way he was even going to consider her liking him. That would just be... that would just be awkward. They'd never see each other again, and he'd be _that_ guy, the sometime-or-other crush that just up and vanished.

He didn't want to be that guy.

When Zuko excused himself, Ryan took the chance and asked if he could help with the dishes. At first, Song's mother had insisted that he relax, but he told her that it didn't feel right. She'd prepared a meal for them, after all. He should do something for them in return. She acceded, so that meant all he had to do was just stay in the kitchen and out of the way for Song to develop her unrequited affection for Song to give the Shippers something to talk about-

"Actually, Mom, I think I'd like to help Yan on this one."

_AAAAH, why can't things stay the same like they should!_ Ryan thought.

He collected a couple of dishes and followed Song. In the kitchen was a basin with a couple of buckets of water. Ryan couldn't see anything like soap or anything, but he did see some cloths that he could use.

"So, uh. You wash, I dry?"

"Sounds good to me."

_Okay, Ryan. Just don't say anything. Just don't say anything and this will all go just right._

"I know what you're doing here," Song said.

Ryan had a split second to react, but nothing came to mind. He reached for a wet dish and tried to quirk his eyebrows in a way that looked normal.

"You're running from the Fire Nation. They've hurt you."

"My friend has suffered more than me," Ryan answered truthfully.

"I see. We're all of us like that. The Fire Nation hurt me too."

"What?" Ryan asked. He remembered that much, but hopefully she would buy his surprise as well as his name.

"It was... when my father was taken," Song said. "I tried to go after him. They wouldn't let me."

"I'm sorry. I'm sure he's all right." He didn't know what else to say.

"Yeah."

_Wow_, Ryan thought. _I've managed to awkward the conversation into not happening. Skill!_

"I mean, we've got to have hope, right?"

Ryan grit his teeth, took the next dish a little faster, but managed to force his body back to relaxation.

"I've even heard that the Avatar's been spotted!" Song said.

"Whoa, really? Where?"

"Well, it's hard to say. There's a lot of people all over the Earth Kingdom who've spotted him. The man who sold us those cabbages that we had with dinner? He says the Avatar personally knocked over his stand! Can you believe it?"

"Wow. That's... pretty incredible."

"I know, right? It's just... incredible."

"It really is," Ryan said.

_Fuck hippies_, John thought. _Fuck hippies forever_.

Kishi: This has actually sat on my hard drive for a while and I just never got around to posting it. I guess that's what losing your job does to you – you lose your sense of structure. Not to worry, though, I'll be back with more stuff. I'm just saying.

Avatar: The Last Airbender is copyrighted to Byran Konietzko and Michael DiMartino. I profit in no way save the experience.


End file.
